2008 Playoffs: Freddie at MLB, Federkeil at RG, and more

I do get that Brackett being out is bad, and that not having Richard back up Saturday could be bad if Saturday has to come out… it’s the other positions that I’m not as familiar with.

They are also saying that “we know what to except from the Colts”. And don’t worry about the Chargers breaking out the wildcat play since Phillip Rivers wouldn’t be caught dead trying to pose as a receiver and LT isn’t healthy enough to do such a play. Also, Merriman won’t be on field, just on the sidelines cheering for his guys.

I would take a banged up L.T. and Gates over having Brackett out. I’m not knocking Brackett here, but we’ve had time to put other players and see how they manage it. L.T. had one decent game against a terrible run defense. And just when he was getting healthy he strained a groin. Groins are one of the most important things to not only your manhood but RBs. If it is indeed a groin, he’ll be severely limited. Especially since it’s easily aggrevated. And with Gates being reported to be worse off than L.T. that means the loss of Brackett for the game isn’t as glaring. They’ll have to try to test our secondary or hope for great returns by Sproles (that’s my worst fear). If we can get up 7-14 points before halftime, they’ll play right into our Tampa 2. And they’ll have to try to keep up because I don’t predict them stopping Manning like they have in the past.

And point blank our D is healthier than when we first played them and it’s at the healthiest it’s been all year. Aside from Marlin and Brackett we’re not looking too bad. And if we get past them, that means that if Brackett comes back for the next game the playoff experience at LB is pretty deep. Besides, Dungy has brought out the best of the guys we’ve had on D for years.

The mantra goes for offense : “In Manning we Trust”
For defense : “In Dungy we Trust”

If we can’t stop them while they’re banged up, we won’t be able to stop the Titans with Johnson/White and Scaife. The biggest bonus is that Foster and Johnson will be playing DT. I honestly think everyone is underestimating our Defense. We’re overall 11th now, 7th in points allowed, and 6th in pass after breaking the passing TD record. That’s quite a feat when you win 11 games. What it means is that while everyone’s trying to keep the ball away from Peyton, we’re still winning games. If we’re winning games that means that at some point they have to try to pass to beat us. And it means that they can’t. And our rush D is significantly better than it was, the first part of the season just killed the stat for us.

Remember, if we had played Denver and blown them out that doesn’t tell us anything except we can beat up bad teams/defenses. If we beat San Diego we validate everything we’ve been accomplishing the past 9 games.

And our ability to get to the QB has significantly improved after Antonio Johnson came over. Rivers hasn’t seen the type of pressure the Colts can bring going up against the fearsome Raiders, Chiefs, or Denver among others. They might not get sacks but they’ll disrupt him. I’ve seen what Rivers does when he gets pressure or attempts to scramble. He tucks the ball like a RB but attempts to look downfield. It’s very awkward and if Freeney and Mathis can get penetration like I think they’re going to, it’ll be very bad especially with Mathis and his ability to create fumbles.

Sanders was out the first go around too and if we’re stopping their run without safety help his main assignment will probably be the over man on Gates.

They say they match up well to us, but that was with Merriman. I honestly think at this point we match up extremely well to beat them. In fact, I was more afraid of Denver’s zone blocking with Marshall, Royal, Schefller than I am about a gimped LT/Gates. Jackson might get a couple balls but we don’t normally give up big plays in the secondary. It should be a fun game to watch. One of the more interesting ones of the playoffs.

I actually think Manning will probably be at around 230-240 yds with 1 TD and Addai/Rhodes will get about 150 yards. Dungy will probably try to take advantage of a poor running defense to see if/what he can use going forward. The Colts will be playing the way everyone plays against us. Grinding drives to take time off. If we can’t legitimize our backs we still stand a chance going forward but I’d feel alot more comfortable. We need that playaction to work again.

Has this calmed you or do I need to pull out the tranq gun?